Why so many U.S. manufacturers are putting up ‘Help Wanted’ signs

[Cheze]

because most companies in (say) indiana that need workers are not really looking for people in (say) new york to interview. To 'move to a place where there is a better paying job' you need:

1) money: to physically transit, to survive until this better-paying-job comes along, etc.

2) No (or few) commitments where you currently are. Family, property, network, etc. must be things you can easily and feasibly leave behind. You may consider family a 'BS response' but children or elders who need care/support are a major reason people are less mobile than they might be otherwise.

3) Industry-specific knowledge. Firm in the OP nonwithstanding, most firms in this day and age are not really willing to babysit a new hire for a period of months or years while they learn skills or w/e. That is no longer a cost firms build into their hiring model, though this may be changing.

[Mormolyce]

So this "manufacturing jobs crisis" was another false emergency used to peddle a fact-free election campaign?

This is my surprised face.

[Rennadrel]

$20 an hour is middle class? Must be nice living in a country where housing is fairly affordable and the overall cost of living is much more reasonable. In most parts of Canada sans the east coast, $20 an hour wouldn't get you even close to middle class. You'd need dual incomes at that rate just to get a mortgage of more than $250,000.

[BannedForViews]

And I guarantee you the biggest reason is, because they can't afford to.

People don't want to move to cheaper locations that have jobs because they can't afford to????

[Risale]

Relocation is tricky. You uproot your life, move from family and friends, and requires a sizable amount of money in advance as you're either commuting to the location for interviews and such prior to the move, or you pay everything and take a gamble on getting the job or not. Either way there's a large cost investment before even doing the move and chances are if a job like that is that appealing, you wouldn't have the funds for relocation anyways.

If a company is in such need that they resort to "Help Wanted" signs they need to get with the program and they will need to send somebody from HR to say a city like New York or LA or Miami put them up in a hotel so that these HR folks can interview those who applied face to face which would cost the potential hire nothing besides going to a place close to home for it.
And if they do hire someone they will need to pay for peoples relocation upon hire & provide them with relocation options such as putting those hires in contact with realtors, contact details for good schools etc.
Now if a company isn't prepared to do these simple things then they are not desperate period or they have extremly poor management.
I have worked for several companies in my career so far and besides ofcourse in the Netherlands also in the UK, Denmark and Hong Kong and those jobs abroad 2 of which were closer to my current home then NYC to Indiana all came with what I mentioned and more (company owned house in Denmark, we just paid utilities) and I got 2 fully paid round trip tickets a year to go back home and see family and friends when I worked in Hong Kong

[Bullettime]

People don't want to move to cheaper locations that have jobs because they can't afford to????

If you're working at a low wage position, you're too busy trying to keep your head above water and have minimal luxury expense, much less the ability to move cross country on a gamble or have the time/money to commute long distance for interviews if the company doesn't allow telecommuting for them.

If you're already working a position that you can afford to do that no problem, it's probably not worth uprooting your life for minimal gains.

[BannedForViews]

$20 an hour is middle class? Must be nice living in a country where housing is fairly affordable and the overall cost of living is much more reasonable. In most parts of Canada sans the east coast, $20 an hour wouldn't get you even close to middle class. You'd need dual incomes at that rate just to get a mortgage of more than $250,000.

Housing prices in popular Canadian location are astronomical though. If you want to live in NYC, or Silicon Valley, it is also very expensive. Is it expensive to live in the Northwest Territory though? the US has a lot of open land mass where people don't really want to live and costs are very low. The Cold cuts a lot of your land mass off from most people.

[Bullettime]

If a company is in such need that they resort to "Help Wanted" signs they need to get with the program and they will need to send somebody from HR to say a city like New York or LA or Miami put them up in a hotel so that these HR folks can interview those who applied face to face which would cost the potential hire nothing besides going to a place close to home for it.
And if they do hire someone they will need to pay for peoples relocation upon hire & provide them with relocation options such as putting those hires in contact with realtors, contact details for good schools etc.
Now if a company isn't prepared to do these simple things then they are not desperate period or they have extremly poor management.
I have worked for several companies in my career so far and besides ofcourse in the Netherlands also in the UK, Denmark and Hong Kong and those jobs abroad 2 of which were closer to my current home then NYC to Indiana all came with what I mentioned and more (company owned house in Denmark, we just paid utilities) and I got 2 fully paid round trip tickets a year to go back home and see family and friends when I worked in Hong Kong

They should. The problem is more that they don't. They're complaining about not being able to fill their 20 an hour manufacturing positions but don't realize that their standards are too high for what they're paying and expecting.

People who would love to move up to that money can't afford to and the companies don't help with that, even to allow telecommuting for interviews. And for what experience and degrees they require for that position, it cuts the number of interested even further and people who would be qualified could find better employment options.

[BannedForViews]

If you're working at a low wage position, you're too busy trying to keep your head above water and have minimal luxury expense, much less the ability to move cross country on a gamble or have the time/money to commute long distance for interviews if the company doesn't allow telecommuting for them.

If you're already working a position that you can afford to do that no problem, it's probably not worth uprooting your life for minimal gains.

A lot of these people being discussed could fit all their belongings in their car. The issue is that most humans are risk averse and so won't take the chance, or they don't want to leave friends/family/stuff. There's a reason people suffer and pay over half their salary living in crap holes in NYC but won't give that up to go to Muncie to work at a plant where they make more and life costs less.

[Bullettime]

A lot of these people being discussed could fit all their belongings in their car. The issue is that most humans are risk averse and so won't take the chance, or they don't want to leave friends/family/stuff. There's a reason people suffer and pay over half their salary living in crap holes in NYC but won't give that up to go to Muncie to work at a plant where they make more and life costs less.

Except the requirements those places are looking for disqualify those people so there's no point in even going.

This is a problem. It's an employers' markets and no one wants to do on the job training anymore even for entry level or apprenticeship level positions. So the people who are qualified won't take those jobs and the people who want the income or would try either can't afford it or aren't qualified.

[Auxora]

Well one thing that's impacted this has been the rise of salaries in low-cost countries like China. Demand there was so high that eventually salaries started to go up, then combine that with cities in the US desperate for jobs to the point of offering incentives to manufacturing companies like tax breaks, add in the decline of unions in the US which is making manufacturing wages in the US relatively low, and that companies manufacturing here can avoid transportation costs and tariffs...and it starts to make sense to make products in the US.

With the likely isolationist approach of Trump and probable increase in tariffs that will start to make even more sense. The catch being, how many people in the US really want those production $15/hr jobs? If you're doing one of the better jobs for those factories, like a manager, or maybe something specialized like an electrician that pays a little better then you can make a living wage. But (usually) without unions, those $15/hr production worker jobs...eh. I wouldn't want to try to raise a family on that. If I were just out of high school or in my early 20's maybe, but that's only about $31k a year which is barely above the poverty line if you're married with 2 kids.

[Osmeric]

Training is expensive. In our firm, we have three people with GMAW, SMAW 3G, 4G and 6G welding certifications, and AWS welding inspector certifications. The initial training and certifications cost on average 10k per person. That is a lot of investment into somebody who may or may not stay with the company.

It sounds like the sort of thing the government could subsidize, because expecting companies to do it isn't all that reasonable if the benefits have a good chance of walking away.

[Xeones]

I like how the article is full of people going "I don't know why it's hard to get people into this job!"

Wonder what their hours are like. Every factory around here expects people to work a minimum of 12 hours a shift. Typically days on end, and if that isn't enough in my area most of the factories have closed and reopened at least 3 times in the last 20 years with up to 5 years in between reopening.

So we've got brutal hours and constant fears of losing your job. Is it a wonder kids all drink the cool aid and go to college hoping for a 9-5 job?

[Endus]

To 'move to a place where there is a better paying job' you need:

1) money: to physically transit, to survive until this better-paying-job comes along, etc.

2) No (or few) commitments where you currently are. Family, property, network, etc. must be things you can easily and feasibly leave behind. You may consider family a 'BS response' but children or elders who need care/support are a major reason people are less mobile than they might be otherwise.

3) Industry-specific knowledge. Firm in the OP nonwithstanding, most firms in this day and age are not really willing to babysit a new hire for a period of months or years while they learn skills or w/e. That is no longer a cost firms build into their hiring model, though this may be changing.

For 1), sure, though I'd disagree on "survive until this better-paying-job comes along" bit; you can do interviews and get employment and THEN move, particularly in this day and age.

For 2), I flat-out disagree that this should be a consideration. This is a reason people choose to remain unemployed, it it's a reason they can't find work. It's no different than a new mom choosing to stay home with the kids. Those choices come with consequences. Choosing to stay in a place you can't find work to stay close to family means you're choosing family over work. Which is fine, but let's be honest about the decision being made.

For 3), I support retraining funding from the government to offset that issue, FWIW.

Housing prices in popular Canadian location are astronomical though. If you want to live in NYC, or Silicon Valley, it is also very expensive. Is it expensive to live in the Northwest Territory though? the US has a lot of open land mass where people don't really want to live and costs are very low. The Cold cuts a lot of your land mass off from most people.

Most Canadians live relatively close to the US border. It's not really a different issue than you see in the USA. Want to live in Boston, LA, NYC, Seattle? You'll pay through the NOSE. But there's plenty of smaller towns with much more reasonable property values. Same in Canada; if you want to live in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, you'll pay through the nose. But if you want to live in Thunder Bay, St. John's, Wolfville, it's a hell of a lot cheaper. It's a big city/small town divide, nothing more. It's just that Vancouver and Toronto in particular are BIG cities, and people still think of their suburbs as separate townships, when they really aren't, in a functional sense; their property values are spiking because they're in commute range to that city.

[Pachycrocuta]

Most manufacturing jobs that aren't union have some of the shittiest hours. I live in a small town in Indiana, about 100 miles (2.5 hour drive) south of Muncie. I don't know what it is like in Muncie with the factory jobs, but the ones here... They all force you to go through a Temporary Agency, which takes basically half your pay (they pay you 8-9 dollars an hour, while a "permanent" factory worker makes 14-16 dollars an hour). You are also forced to work "mandatory overtime" working 50-60 hours a week. Monday through Friday, but at certain parts of the year they make you work Saturdays as well. They are also practically the only jobs that pay more than minimum wage (though barely, at least until you maybe get on permanent). The drawback is, you have no "life", as you just work and sleep, with maybe some time for a single meal (or you function on 4 hours of sleep a day).

As have been noted earlier, the absurd experience requirements these employers have removes a HUGE portion of prospective job hunters, and then they complain about no one taking the job. Things have changed. Unless a business closes down, most people with 3-5+ years of experience are more than likely going to stick with their current employer as they apparently have job security. Also, people are loathe to just up and move due to the costs associated with it. And for some, there's also the added hassle of possible selling a house (which could take forever), finding a house to purchase in the new place or getting an apartment to rent. Muncie is a rather large city, with a college (Ball State Univeristy), and cities are more expensive to live in compared to a small town. So that $20 an hour job up in Muncie could possibly be similar to a $10 an hour job here in my small town (which still isn't enough for a single person to live on their own, and if it is somewhere new, you don't know anyone to be your roommate).

If you want to fill your positions, you have to compromise, which isn't exactly something many businesses do.

[BannedForViews]

Except the requirements those places are looking for disqualify those people so there's no point in even going.

This is a problem. It's an employers' markets and no one wants to do on the job training anymore even for entry level or apprenticeship level positions. So the people who are qualified won't take those jobs and the people who want the income or would try either can't afford it or aren't qualified.

That's the opposite of what the article said though. They are willing to train the unskilled, they just can't find enough who want to come receive the training. Unless you mean the employees dont wan to receive the training. Your wording is pretty vague.

[Rennadrel]

For 1), sure, though I'd disagree on "survive until this better-paying-job comes along" bit; you can do interviews and get employment and THEN move, particularly in this day and age.

For 2), I flat-out disagree that this should be a consideration. This is a reason people choose to remain unemployed, it it's a reason they can't find work. It's no different than a new mom choosing to stay home with the kids. Those choices come with consequences. Choosing to stay in a place you can't find work to stay close to family means you're choosing family over work. Which is fine, but let's be honest about the decision being made.

For 3), I support retraining funding from the government to offset that issue, FWIW.



Most Canadians live relatively close to the US border. It's not really a different issue than you see in the USA. Want to live in Boston, LA, NYC, Seattle? You'll pay through the NOSE. But there's plenty of smaller towns with much more reasonable property values. Same in Canada; if you want to live in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, you'll pay through the nose. But if you want to live in Thunder Bay, St. John's, Wolfville, it's a hell of a lot cheaper. It's a big city/small town divide, nothing more. It's just that Vancouver and Toronto in particular are BIG cities, and people still think of their suburbs as separate townships, when they really aren't, in a functional sense; their property values are spiking because they're in commute range to that city.

Most of the big cities around Toronto have gotten expensive though. KW is going to be next. Milton was the victim several years ago, Guelph has been it the last few years and KW is next. Look at how bad Oakville is for housing alone, it is absurd.

[Shadowferal]

Okay let me ask you this (as I am from the Netherlands so my country fits on the back of a postage stamp if you compare it to the US) what is the main deal with people in the US moving from say New York to Indiana (and please don't say because of family as that to me is a BS response) for a job.

It takes a good deal of money to move. You'd need enough just to survive for a few months on top of everything else involving relocation. Not to mention the more intangible stuff like finding out where to live (a place that's nice low-crime and affordable)
And that's just off the cuff. It's a gamble that you'd even get such a job to begin with.

For 1), sure, though I'd disagree on "survive until this better-paying-job comes along" bit; you can do interviews and get employment and THEN move, particularly in this day and age.

No you couldn't. Most jobs like that are face-to-face interviews. And if a person wants such a job, then s/he isn't going to have the money to travel for what may indeed be a "frivolous" expense for a single interview that "might" land him/her a job.

I was told long ago that I could probably find a good paying job in the Raleigh/Durham area (NC). But I'm not going to travel hundreds of miles for "probably." Nor would I want to live in NC...like anywhere in that state to begin with.

[Deleted]

20$ per hour is a middle class nowadays? I don't think so with prices rising through the years... Maybe few decades ago...

[Spectral]

20$ per hour is a middle class nowadays? I don't think so with prices rising through the years... Maybe few decades ago...

That's ~$40K/year. For a two income household, that's $80K/year, which is solidly middle class for the proverbial two children and a dog suburban household.